


The Lover, His Brother, and One More Good Day

by lizznotliz



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Families of Choice, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 07:01:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizznotliz/pseuds/lizznotliz
Summary: Taako gave Lup a Best Day Ever, but he wasn't going to let Barry go without one, too.





	The Lover, His Brother, and One More Good Day

They've been here for months, but Barry still can't get a good read on this plane.

It's magic as hell, obviously, which will certainly help with what he and Lup are planning, and he'll take a peaceful world over a cruel one any day of the week, but the emptiness is unsettling. There's no evidence of a plague, no mass graves, and the cities are mostly intact; Barry vacillates between being grateful for the infrastructure they can piggyback off of for a year and being hella spooked that, near as they can tell, everyone here just up and vanished one day.

Hell, the DMV was still intact. If that isn't creepy, what is?

"Keep up, Barold!" Taako calls from the top of the hill. He's wearing Lup's sun hat, the one they bought off a street vendor on that desert plane eleven - or was it twelve? - cycles ago. Barry hopes he asked before borrowing it because it's Lup's favorite and there will be hell to pay if anything happens to it. "Barry, seriously, my dude, you cannot be getting distracted in an empty world."

"I'm talented that way," Barry deadpans, and a smile twitches at the corner of Taako's mouth. He's been demanding and higher-strung-than-usual all morning, barging into Barry's room at dawn and insisting that he get up and out of bed and follow Taako before anyone else on the ship was awake. He refuses to tell Barry where they're going and, when Barry stopped in the middle of the street and declined to move until Taako told him what was going on, he threatened to cast Levitate on Barry and just push him where they needed to go.

Barry decided he'd rather walk.

"Are we nearly there?" The sun is still in the sky, just as it always is, and they’re heading west so he has a good view of the shimmering purple horizon where the Plane of Magic intersects the surface. It's beautiful and weird in a way that makes Barry want to sit down and take some notes, but he doubts Taako would oblige. He adjusts the backpack Taako thrust into his arms as they left the ship; he's not sure what's in it - Taako cast some kind of arcane lock that Barry hasn't been able to pick yet - but it's kind of heavy and the weight is digging into his shoulders as he climbs the hill to reach Taako. The elf turns his back for a moment, looking down the other side where Barry can't see, but when he turns around again, a soft smile - the kind Barry's more accustomed to seeing on Lup's face, rather than her brother's - graces his features.

"C'mon, Barold, just a little further."

When he crests the hill, Barry gasps, taking in the crystal blue lake on the other side. The lake is ringed with white sand, nestled in a valley with hills around the outside; Barry imagines that down at the water level, all you can see are the rolling hills and wildflowers. A small oasis right on the outskirts of a dead city. He turns, grinning, back to Taako and finds Taako already smiling at him, holding out a pair of earplugs.

"Fancy a swim?"

The lake is cool and still, and the bottom is made of smooth round rocks. There are no fish, so Barry floats carefree, relaxed, and giddy in the middle of the lake. Taako joins him for a while, the both of them on their backs and occasionally bumping elbows, before he retreats to the shore and sunbathes. When he feels like he might be getting sunburnt, Barry starts swimming laps from one end of the small lake to the other, timing his breaths to see how long he can stay under. It's been so long since they've been anywhere they can relax this much, anywhere with a body of water that Barry can safely jump in. He wishes he'd known about this lake sooner, but he's been so busy with Lup, studying and preparing for their lich spell.

He's finished a lap and just about to turn and start another when a large Mage Hand appears in the water in front of him, blocking his way, and he turns back to the shore and sees Taako waving from the white sand beach. There's a small fire near his feet, along with a surprisingly large amount of camping gear, and Barry suddenly realizes what was in his backpack all morning.

"Go put your pants back on, Barry," Taako says, waving a dismissive hand, as he wades out of the shallows. "I don't even recognize you without your jeans on."

"You know Lup make me denim boxers once," Barry says from behind a tree as he changes out of his swim trunks, mostly because he's the only one on the ship besides Merle who can truly scandalize Taako. True to form, Taako claps his hands over his ears and wails plaintively before pointing a ladle at Barry and shouting, "No more talking about my sister and your underwear or you don't get lunch!"

Lunch, it turns out, is gumbo - Barry's mother's recipe that it took them years to perfect from Barry's memory and their limited supplies - which Taako only ever makes on Barry's birthday.

That's when Barry realizes.

His spoon clatters into his bowl, falling from numb fingers, as he stares straight at Taako. The elf is too busy fussing with something still hidden in his own bag to notice right away, but after a moment he looks over his shoulder at Barry, narrows his eyes, and says, "What?"

"Are you-- Taako, are you giving me a day, too?"

And for just a second - maybe only half a second, there and gone so fast that if Barry hadn't known Taako for over eighty years he would have certainly missed it - is a flash of unmistakable, bone-deep fear.

And it’s gone just as quick as it appeared but Barry _ saw it _ and it spiked something dark and terrified in him as well. He drops his bowl, gumbo splashing over his feet, and he reaches out instinctively for Taako’s hand.

There was a time when Taako would have wrenched away from Barry’s grip, would have gone stony and sullen at the very idea of anyone touching him, or offering comfort, would have fired back with something sharp as he built up a brick wall around himself. But it’s been eighty years and Barry is, well, Barry is the closest thing Taako has to a brother. He can’t hold a candle to Lup, of course, and the rest of the crew is family now, too, but when Barry reaches out, Taako doesn’t pull away. His face goes blank for a moment, like he’s trying to decide how sincere he wants to get, and Barry squeezes his wrist.

“Taako?”

“She said it would help,” Taako says, almost defiantly. “Good memories? That’s what you two bozos are banking on keeping you safe when you go all ghostie?”

“Yeah, yeah, but--”

“You didn’t think I would want to keep you safe, too?”

Barry falters, surprised at the combination of anger and hurt in Taako’s voice. His face must show _ something _ because Taako starts back up again, flippant and defensive in that way he gets when things strike a little too close.

“Look, my dude, this is an entirely selfish action on my part, right? Like, I am extremely good out here and Lup’s not allowed to go anywhere without me, natch, and she’s bewitched and beholden to you, Barry dear, so if I have to spend some quality time with my favorite human to make sure the both of you don’t explode or die or whatever, then I guess I can stomach a day at the lake, y’know? I’m just making sure me and mine stay right where they are.”

Barry nods, picks up his bowl again, casts Prestidigitation to clean the sand off of it, and holds it out so Taako can ladle him out some more gumbo. He doesn’t say anything - no _ thank you _ or _ that makes sense _ or _ I love you, too, Taako _ \- just eats in silence for a few minutes, watching Taako’s shoulders come down from around his ears as he finally starts to relax. Barry runs over Taako’s words in his head, hearing all the things he didn’t say, and his heart swells with affection.

When they’ve finished eating, Taako moves restlessly around their makeshift campsite, casting multiple cleaning spells and repacking his rucksack even as he waves Barry away from his own; he doesn’t think they’re leaving the lake quite yet, but now that he’s figured out the purpose of the trip, Barry thinks Taako is maybe a little unsettled, or perhaps even embarrassed. Barry knows who Taako is, deep down, after all their years together, but just as he knows how soft Taako can be, how desperately Taako longs for affection, he also knows how much Taako hates being known in this way. So he doesn’t push, doesn’t ask what’s next, doesn’t even try to guess what Taako has planned for him.

Honestly, just knowing that Taako _ wanted _ to give him a Best Day Ever has made it one.

“Okay, nerd, I know it’s taken me a while, but I finally finished this. Never say that Taako doesn’t keep his promises.” And before Barry can ask what he’s talking about, Taako drops a large sheaf of papers onto the sand at Barry’s feet. The papers are bound along the edge, but it’s clearly an old document and a few pages fly loose when it hits the ground. The title page actually floats into the air for a moment before falling to land on Barry’s foot.

“Is this… Taako did you finally read my doctoral dissertation?” Taako arches an eyebrow then drops to the sand, folding his legs underneath him in one smooth motion. It’s impressive and showy and Barry would tease him about it but he’s too surprised to speak because _ Taako finally read his doctoral dissertation. _“You were supposed to read this before we left! All of the arcanists were,” Barry reminds him - and he remembers, suddenly, the look of relief that swept across Magnus’ face when he realized he wasn’t required to. “You told me you read the Fantasy Cliff Notes and that’s not even a thing!”

“I was trying to condense all of my favorite recipes into a single book, my man, I was hella busy before we took off.” And Taako is smiling, bright and wide and proud, because they’ve had this argument a dozen times over the years, anytime Barry or Lup or Davenport brings up something about how the planar system works and cites the dissertation. 

“I gave you this copy back in - holy Pan - was it cycle 13?”

“Nine.” Taako points to a scribbled mark on the corner of the title page. “I’ve been working through it.”

“For _ seventy years _?”

“Been kinda busy,” Taako sniffs, then reaches into his back and pulls out a scroll. He flicks it out with a flourish of his hand and it begins to unroll; when it finally stops, Barry guesses it has to be at least three feet long. “However, now that I’m done and I have the author here, I have a few questions.”

_ A few _ is actually _ forty-seven _ and Taako asks every single one that he’s written down. Barry feels like he’s back at the Institute, standing in front of his professors and having to defend his research all over again. Taako wants to know more about his sources, challenges assumptions Barry made nearly a century ago with the information they’ve gleaned from their journey, and they keep passing the dissertation back and forth between them, looking up quotes and passages to make their cases.

It’s the kind of intellectual debate that Barry misses sometimes. He wouldn’t trade his spot on the Starblaster for anything, but there was a reason he was an academic back in the day. Sure, they do a lot of research on the ship, looking for and studying the Light, and he and Lup have been known to have nerd throwdowns every so often, but this is different. This is Taako throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, trying to poke holes in a paper he spent almost his entire adult, pre-Starblaster life writing. It’s invigorating and annoying and so much fun that when Taako finally nods, satisfied, and rolls his scroll of questions back up that Barry bursts out laughing and flops backward into the sand, delighted and utterly spent.

“Okay, fine, Dr. Bluejeans,” Taako sighs. “I suppose you _ do _ know what you’re talking about.”

“Love you, too, Taako,” Barry laughs, because he does and he can’t keep it to himself anymore, not today, not on a Best Day Ever. Taako, bless him, just folds up the title page of the dissertation into a paper airplane and sends it careening towards Barry’s face.

The way everything on this plane is held in stasis, the sun never sets. It’s been tough, adjusting to living someplace where it’s just after dawn every second of the day, but Davenport had them keep a strict daily schedule to try to combat the restlessness. It helps a little that the stasis seems confined to the surface of the planet, but not the space above it; though they’re hard to see in the dawn light, there are three moons that cycle through the sky in what should be night. Mentally spent from their intellectual debate, Taako and Barry spend what’s left of their day back in the water, floating and swimming and - in Barry’s case - trying very hard not to get too sentimental, until they can see the moons overhead, bright and glowing even in the sunlight. When Taako spots them, he reaches over and dunks Barry’s head underwater; he’d been floating serenely with his eyes closed and sputtered, coughing and cursing, back to the surface to see Taako smirking at him.

“Day’s not over yet, Barry, still a few surprises left.”

There’s a tent, and the cooking fire’s roaring again, and Taako is digging through his bag, once again refusing to let Barry see what else he had hauled up the hill that morning. Barry changes into his pajamas - the ones Magnus got him for Candlenights a few years ago, when they were staying in that city that was the textile export capital of the plane and they all stocked up on clothes; Barry can’t figure out how Taako got them out of his closet without him noticing - and then settles into the sand again. Barry bats at the zipper on the flap of the tent, yawning; it’s strange, feeling that end-of-the-day sleepiness while a dawning sun still hangs in the sky.

“Davenport’s not making us go back to the ship tonight?” It’s not unheard of for the team to split up on safe worlds - for as close as they’ve all become, they need some alone time - but they’ve been sticking close to the Starblaster this year, unable to completely discern what happened to this world and how the intersecting planes might have affected life. But Taako shakes his head.

“Not unless you’re desperate to snuggle with Lup, my dude.”

“I think I can handle a night with you,” Barry says, laughing, as he gets a good look at the tent. It’s nothing magical or ornate, nothing that anyone would expect Taako to bring, but Barry recognizes it immediately: it looks just like the tent they shared decades ago, a few cycles before Legato, a year when Lup was gone and they had both been wrecked by it and volunteered to go hunting for the Light. In hindsight, they probably shouldn’t have been left alone, heartsick and angry and reckless with their shared loss, but what Barry remembers about that year - what he thinks Taako is trying to invoke now - is how they ended up banding together instead. They distracted each other, comforted each other, and spent more than one night camping in the middle of a forest, trying to plan how Barry was going to declare his love to Taako’s sister the next year.

They never managed to settle on a plan, but Barry remembers and his heart swells again.

“Taako--” he starts, but Taako cuts him off, insistent, like he could tell Barry was about to get sappy again.

“Dessert time!” Taako sing-songs, and there’s apple pie - warmed over the fire - and a tub of vanilla ice cream, still cold and solid despite sitting in Taako’s pack all day. When the pie is sufficiently warm, Taako serves Barry the dessert and murmurs, “Don’t worry, it’s dairy free,” as he nods at the ice cream. _ Don’t worry _ , he says, like Barry doesn’t know it’s conjured and that this world is entirely empty of any animal that could provide milk. _ Don’t worry _, he says, and it’s just one more way that Barry knows how much he cares.

And he tried to say something earlier, but Taako deflected - not as much as might have done in the past, sure, but he still tried to brush it off - so Barry sits back and eats quietly, savoring the contrast in the warm pie and the cold ice cream. Taako smirks and points at his nose and Barry rubs a spot of vanilla off his own.

“So you gave Lup a Best Day, right?” Taako asks between bites.

“Mmhmm.”

“Who else?”

“Who else… knows?” Barry shakes his head. “Nobody. Lup and I agreed we would only tell you what we are going to do.”

Taako waves a dismissive hand. “No, I figured that out. Cap’nport definitely would have tried to stop you by now if he knew.” He’s right, but Barry doesn’t tell him about all the plans he and Lup had in case Taako tried to stop them, too. “I know they may not have realized what it was for, but who else did you have a good day with?”

“Oh. Magnus and Lucretia and I had a Team Human day. Lup and I gave each other days. I didn’t plan on it, but Merle and Davenport finally taught me how to play that yooker game they made up a few decades ago when I had trouble sleeping last week and I’m going to hang on to that, too.” Something about that answer troubles Taako. His brow furrows and he puts his spoon down on his plate. “What?”

“You got memories from everybody else, but you still didn’t come to me?”

“You let me help with Lup’s day, keeping an eye on your aunt’s turkey,” Barry says, smiling genuinely. That was a big deal. “Knowing you trusted me with that, and how much Lup would love it, that was enough for me. I wasn’t… we weren’t sure how you would react. I didn’t want to upset you.”

“Too late, dingus, I’m upset now because you didn’t ask.”

“I’m sorry.”

Taako sighs. “Don’t-- fuck, don’t be sorry today. Not today, okay? I didn’t want to-- I’m pissed, right, but this is supposed to be your day and I don’t want to screw it up. So forget about it.”

“Taako--”

“Ah!” Taako cast a small Mage Hand and flicks Barry in the forehead. “Cut it out! Happy day! Forget it!”

And they go back to their pie and Barry lets Taako change the subject, rambling on about something gross dumb Merle did the other day and how his campaign to be the subject of Lucretia’s next painting is going. And Barry listens and he smiles and, serious reasons aside, it’s just nice to hang out with Taako.

“Careful, bud, don’t fall asleep in your pie.” Barry blinks and suddenly Taako is closer than before, right next to his shoulder, gently easing the plate from his hands.

“Huh?”

“Get in the tent, Barold. I’ve got one last surprise before your human body gives out for the night.” Taako shoves him a little when he doesn’t start moving, and then when Barry starts crawling into the tent he realizes how utterly exhausted he is. The heat of the day, the peaceful lake, the gumbo and the dissertation defense and his love for his brother, it’s all settling in his bones like a comforting warm weight, pulling him down. He snuggles up into one of the sleeping bags and carefully folds up his glasses. 

“You might need those for a few minutes,” Taako says, ducking into the tent after him. 

“What for?”

Taako flops down beside him on his own sleeping bag, screws up his face like he’s concentrating really hard, and then mutters a spell that Barry doesn’t recognize. The inside of the tent gets darker, like the perpetual daylight outside has suddenly been snuffed out, and then, on the roof of the tent above them, little lights start to glow. Barry slides his glasses back on and squints up at the illusory stars Taako has cast above them. They look... strangely familiar.

“The Wagon!” he breathes, the arrangement of the stars suddenly reconciling themselves. “And the Dogpack! This is-- these are the constellations from home!”

“Got it in one, homie.”

Barry looks over at Taako and smiles. “Did Davenport teach you this spell?” Taako shrugs. That means yes; that means Taako asked for help so he could do this. “I can’t believe… God, I can’t believe I remember them, it’s been--” Barry points upward, his index finger brushing against the top of the tent; it makes the illusion - a clear night sky spread out before them - ripple and twitch and he pulls his hand back just enough to keep it stable. “That’s the crossed swords one. I can’t remember the name. Do you?”

Taako’s mouth puckers for a moment and then he shrugs, shoulder bumping against Barry’s. “Lup and I didn’t know the real constellations when we were kids. We made up our own. I think we studied them a little at the Institute, but I don’t remember them anymore.”

“Do you remember the ones from when you were kids?”

Lup’s told Barry about their childhood, about getting passed around, about their aunt, about their time in the caravans. Barry appreciated every story, knowing how difficult it was for Lup to share that part of herself. Taako’s never talked about it, though, at least not with him. Barry’s sure that Taako knows Lup told him, and he’s okay with that, but Barry’s never asked him outright. 

But Taako smiles at him now, like he knows this story is safe with Barry, and he reaches over and moves Barry’s hand so he’s pointing at another clump of stars, the pattern identical to one they would have seen on their homeworld.

“You see how those form a line and then - yeah, there - and then there’s the stars on top of it? Okay so those others are eyes and these over here are spines on the back, and all together it makes up a constellation we named The Hauntling.”

“Wh-what’s a Hauntling?”

Taako chuckles: “It was a monster from a story our aunt told us at bedtime. Something she made up that supposedly lived under the bed to keep us from getting up in the middle of the night. We were dumb kids, give us a break.”

“No. No, I like it.” Barry looks for it again, finds the stars Taako pointed to, and tries to memorize its place in the sky. The chances of them ever going home - finding home - again are slim at best, but in case it ever happens, he wants to be able to find Lup and Taako’s constellation.

“So… this lich thing.” Taako says, out of the blue, his voice suddenly quiet. “You… you can really do it?”

“Yes.”

Taako bites his lip. His voice shakes just a little. “I need you to promise me.”

Barry closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to convey all the confidence he feels into his answer. “I promise.”

“Because if you two fuck this up, you might not reset.” Barry’s heart clenches at the fear in Taako’s voice. He hates that they’ve made Taako scared.

“I know.”

“Barold--”

“Taako.” Barry grabs Taako’s hand. It’s cold, and lacks the burn scars and calluses of Lup’s hand, but the shape is familiar. “Lup and I won’t leave you. We can’t. Not when we have memories like today to hold onto. And when this works? Even if we die, we won’t leave you. We won’t be able to, actually; we’ll always be around.”

Taako is silent for a long, long moment, and Barry knows he’s just trying to pull himself together again. The moment stretches so long that Barry starts to worry that maybe telling Taako at all was a bad idea (_ no, never, they can’t do this without Taako _) but when he finally speaks again he’s just Taako, goofy and deflecting, and Barry breathes easily.

“Oh great, that’s _ just _ what I need: to be haunted for the rest of my fucking life. Taako did not sign up for _ that _!”

And Taako keeps rambling, moaning good-naturedly about how all of this affects _ him _, and he doesn’t pull his hand away, and he doesn’t grumble when Barry leans his head on Taako’s shoulder, and Barry falls asleep, his heart bursting with love.


End file.
